Andrew Siegel

“Wine talks; ask anyone. The oracle at the street corner; the uninvited guest at the wedding feast; the holy fool. It ventriloquizes. It has a million voices. It unleashes the tongue, teasing out secrets you never meant to tell, secrets you never knew. It shouts, rants, whispers. It speaks of great plans, tragic loves and terrible betrayals. It screams with laughter. It chuckles softly to itself. It weeps in front of its own reflection. It revives summers long past and memories best forgotten. Every bottle a whiff of other times, other places, every one- from the commonest Liebfraumilch to the imperious Vueve Clicquot- a humble miracle. Everyday magic, Joe had called it. The transformation of base matter into the stuff of dreams. Layman's alchemy.
Take these six in Jay's cellar, for instance. The Specials. Not wines really meant for keeping, but he kept them all the same. For nostalgia's sake. For a special, yet-to-be-imagined occasion. Six bottles, each with its own small handwritten label and sealed with candle wax. Each had a cord of a different color knotted around its neck; raspberry red, elderflower green, blackberry blue, rose hip yellow, damson black. The last bottle was tied with a brown cord. Specials '75, said the label, the familiar writing faded to the color of old tea.”
― Joanne Harris, Blackberry Wine

“We submit to the majority because we have to. But we are not compelled to call our attitude of subjection a posture of respect.”
― Ambrose Bierce

“i don’t care what you see, or what you say.
path of love’s a pipe dream anyway.
my daimon turns demon from today
now i want the glory and finer things.

sell my soul, the owner, the highest bid
reap the things you sow, i’m a change my ways.
now watch me transform to a higher place
your love’s a thorn, the roses now decay.

so i—
sign on the dotted line
Satan’s paper signed
Lucifer’s bonfire warming up my desire

i want the vanity —
i want the money, the women
this is the bourgeoise rhapsody”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Letter 19

“A Way is needed which contains a concept of Absolute Existence that includes both the Light and the Dark, and Life and Death. If, for instance, Christianity might see Lucifer as the complement and not the enemy, it might take a valuable step on the road to becoming more holistic and respectful of the human reality. If the Divine cannot partake of the Shadow, it cannot be the Divine, for the Divine cannot truly nourish humanity if it only feeds one pole of the human being.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis